Ah, the bureaucracy

We have run up against the bureaucracy a couple times now. It’s not so much that there’s a lot of rules & regulations, it’s that each person in a process has a slightly different take on the rules and they could not care less about any other interpretation.

Logan shipped his sports car over here. To get it registered, he must take it to the TUV, so they can approve the car’s configuration or request changes. To do that, he needed temporary registration. To do that, he needed insurance. When he got the insurance card, he & a German acquaintance who used to work for the same company and is semi-retired, but still helps with insurances, together they went to get the temporary registration. Showed them the insurance card, OK, got a 5-day registration. Went to the TUV and got a list of minor things that need changed on the car, mostly all the light coverings. They need to be clear, instead of red or amber. So the next day, Logan took the car & the list to a local dealership. They had to order parts, and knew it would take a week to get them, so Logan made an appointment to bring the car back then. Meanwhile, the temporary registration ran out and he & Herr Kreefer went back to get another one. Got a different clerk this time, who took one look at the insurance card and said it was no good. What? But your colleague had no problem with it. “My colleague was wrong.” No amount of arguing shifted her. So Logan had to get new insurance cards, reschedule the appointment with the dealership, and keep the rental car for another couple weeks.

Then, on Tuesday, we took all our paperwork to the Landratsampt, to get our residency permits. We had registered at the local city hall in Unterhaching, had letters from Logan’s work, our passports and the application form all filled out. So, you go into a big waiting room, get a number, and wait until it’s displayed on a sign at one end. (A new number is accompanied by a chime like a doorbell, so you know to look up.) We waited for about 60 minutes, got called into the office, and scared the heck out of the clerk when we said our German was nicht gut, sprecken sie English? She said, in English, that her English isn’t very good. That’s OK, better than our German, we replied. So she started looking at our stuff. First thing is that I need to fill out one of these forms too, even though throughout the process until now, we had been assured that it was a family form & we only needed one. And then she asks, where’s Logan’s work permit? We had been told that, since he was working on a NATO project, he didn’t need one.

She needed to check with her boss, so out we went back to the waiting room, where I finished filling out my form. About 30 minutes goes by, and we get called in again. This time the first clerk’s boss is available, his English is very good. He asked us some questions about our forms, and it turned out that we hadn’t gotten some of the things right. For example, one date we thought was to be when we had visited Munich for our recon trip, but it was supposed to be the date we moved here. Since the move date was a couple months later, that made a big difference. (You’re supposed to get your residency permit within 90 days of moving here.) Then he said that Logan also needed a work permit, since he didn’t actually have a NATO badge. (Logan works for ESEA, and they’re contractors at NetMa, on the NATO projects.) We told him that none of the other people who work for ESEA in Munich had work permits. OK, he’s got to go consult with his boss.

Back we go out to the waiting room. Another 30 minutes or so pass. We get called back in around noon, and the final result is that they kept our application forms, gave Logan a form to be filled out & faxed to the department of work, so they can decide if he gets a work permit or not. The clerk said he thought it would be no problem to get the permit, but in the meanwhile Logan couldn’t work.

So that afternoon Logan went in to get someone at NetMa involved. (The overall organization that they work with is NetMa.) Someone there is taking the process and trying to sort it out, has already started calling into the Landratsampt and department of work on Logan’s behalf. We probably won’t hear anything until next week.

Other than that have had a low-key week so far, I went to an International Women’s Club new members coffee on Monday, and then stopped by an internet café in the city to clean out my auxiliary Yahoo email (too painful to deal with a month’s worth, on dial-up.)

Wednesday I drove the rental car to the BMW dealership and took Logan from there to work, then went on a big grocery shopping trip. Then I went into the city for an IWC lunch at a café, one of the activities is to try a new place every month.

I have been keeping touch with the family situation in Rochester, too. The folks are still at the assisted living facility, Dad now recovering from a fall he took last week when he & Andrea went to his house to get some things. (Halfway up the basement stairs, Dad thought he saw a light still on, turned around too fast, tripped and fell down onto the concrete floor. Split his scalp open. She called 911 and they carried him out on a back board. Luckily, no concussion or damage other than the split skin.)

I have been trying to help understand/organize the folks finances, too. Hard to do from here. I think the upcoming trip to Rochester will be a very busy one.